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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Series of Tubes: Three out of Four Ain’t Bad

In honor of last night’s “Gossip Girl” threesome (which received way more promotion and media attention than it deserved, especially for being a b-story), I’m gonna pick three things I liked from the three TV shows I liked last night, then complain about three things I hated from the one show I didn’t like (the one that should have been canceled three years ago).

It’s like Sesame Street (which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this week)... this post on AdamReisinger.com is brought to you by the number Three.

How I Met Your Mother

Best thing about the episode, by far, was the introduction of another potential ongoing gag (in this case, the search for Robin’s Canadian variety show). HIMYM does on-going gags incredibly well, sometimes letting them linger behind the scenes for years before bringing them back. Now, if they could only remember to “bring back” the meeting of the mother...

Let’s be honest, the show was different with Barney and Robin dating. I’m not going to go as far as to say it was worse, but it didn’t have the same feel. Now with Barney single again, things should be legen - wait for it - dary, again.

During the stakeout scene, Lily and Marshall got into an argument about stormtroopers, and Lily, upon realizing they were people and not robots, was aghast at the sheer amount of death caused by the blowing up of the Death Star. Marshall said the stormtroopers knew what they were getting into. I’m pretty sure I’ve had this same conversation before. Like word for word. And I know I’m not the only one.

Gossip Girl

Any threesome involving Hilary Duff is fine by me. But more than just the obvious threesome, this episode was actually all about trios of people teaming up for good or bad. You had Blair-Serena-Chuck, Blair-Eric-Kira and even Jenny and her two escorts (not what you’re thinking).

The actual purpose of the threesome, from a future plot development perspective, seems to be to create tension between Olivia, Dan and Vanessa. This is great, because I felt like they were all getting a little too chummy, especially with everyone around them being at each others throats.

As for Jenny, who was the focus of the A-story, I thought she was at her most likable awhile back when she was with Nate. Hopefully the cotillion incident can re-kindle that relationship.

Castle

First up, as I tweeted last night, the more the episode went on, the more it felt like a re-make of Season 1 of “Veronica Mars.” I am completely fine with this. I miss that show so much.

I almost thought we were going to go the entire episode without an Alexis moment, but then she showed up right at the end to have a great moment with her dad. I felt like she was over-used in the previous episode, but in small doses, she’s perfect.

Captain Montgomery hasn’t always had much to work with, in terms of story, on this show, but last night’s episode was his time to shine, and he did. I immediately like the character significantly more.

... and as for last night’s clunker:

Heroes

You can’t use a scene in promos all week, then try to build it up as a shocking moment in the episode. As soon as the tow truck guy showed up, we knew Sylar/Matt was going to kill him, but they took forever building to that moment. Just more wasted time on a show that perfects that.

We get it, H.R.G. wasn’t always the nicest guy in the past. Does that have to be the motivation for every new character on the show?

Please, please let characters die. We thought Nathan was gone when he got shot and re-shape-shifted into Sylar, but now he’s back. And based on the promo from next week, Parkman will be revived and Mohinder is alive and well too. This is just getting stupid.